The Lead

A group of Lutherans are so angry over the ELCA's decision to allow for the inclusion of partnered gay clergy into their ranks under certain limited conditions that they want to form their own denomination.

But these breakaway Lutherans don't want to join up with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod nor the Wisconsin Synod, because they do not allow for the ordination of women and take the Bible too literally for their tastes. So this would be a not-so-conservative, women-ordaining but gay unfriendly church.

The Washington Post reports:

At a September convention, Lutheran CORE members voted to spend a year considering whether to form a new Lutheran denomination. However, its leaders said Wednesday that a heavy volume of requests for an alternative from disenfranchised congregations and churchgoers prompted them to hasten the process.

John Brooks, spokesman at the ELCA's Chicago-based headquarters, said Lutheran CORE's move was not unexpected. He expressed hope that church members would ultimately opt to stay in the denomination as it strives to be "a place for all people despite any differences we might have on any issues."

Neither Brooks nor Lutheran CORE leaders would guess what kind of numbers a new denomination might attract. Lutheran CORE leaders believe there is deep opposition to the new policy among rank-and-file churchgoers, but said some may not be willing to actually depart the ELCA over it.

Read the rest here.

Comments (8)

I'm sorry to hear this. It seems that every denomination that makes the decision to accept partnered gay clergy will pay a price.

June Butler

Posted by GrandmèreMimi | November 20, 2009 11:57 PM

I get it: they just want to limit their Biblical "literalism" (so-called) to the 7 Clobber Passages.

Pathetic.

JC Fisher

Posted by tgflux | November 21, 2009 12:30 AM

We homos have a lot of power, don't we? Just by asking for what we're entitled to, we can cause entire denominations to split, we can build entire industries around our eradication, we can divert a country's attention from such boring things as the economy, political corruption, and war! Woo-hoo! What shall we set out to conquer next?

(Editor's note: thanks for the comment. We need your full name next time.)

Posted by Pagerbear | November 21, 2009 5:33 AM

JC -

That's a great expression which I hadn't heard before.

I know what you mean, but not specifically. So please, exactly what are the 7 passages?

Posted by Dcn Scott Elliott | November 21, 2009 6:28 AM

In twenty years when all these folks (both Lutheran and "Anglican") are gone, their kids and grandkids won't care about this issue. This break away has a shelf life of about twenty years and then what? Imagine a group of folks who may have formed a church around segregation. How would that look today? Pretty sad and not at all Christian.

Posted by Peter Pearson | November 21, 2009 8:34 AM

Lutheran CORE has made much ado about defending the “authority” of Scripture as the motivation for their efforts, but your post points to the obvious subterfuge. The Missouri and Wisconsin Synod’s prohibition against the ordination of women is certainly one stumbling block for many CORE members (for obvious self-serving reasons), but CORE also has no particular objection to remarried divorcees in the clergy ranks. Apparently, those whom Jesus characterized as unrepentant adulterers are perfectly acceptable clergy material. Notwithstanding the fact that all Christians exercise some discretion in the interpretation and application of Scripture, one would think that at the very least, teachings clearly attributed to the person of Jesus Christ would be regarded as having some binding authority to Christians who believe so passionately in the “authority” of Scripture that they are willing to fracture the body of Christ in “defense” of that authority.

Personally, I’m more concerned about the authority of the Holy Spirit. I sense a not-so-subtle tendency among the defenders of Scriptural authority to replace the Holy Spirit with the Holy Bible as the third person of the Trinity (in practice, if not in creedal formulations). And insofar as teachings directly attributed to the person of Jesus Christ can be so comfortably ignored, one has to wonder what became of the second person of the Trinity. Who is this God – or god?

Posted by John Page | November 21, 2009 11:23 AM

Frankly, the break-off congregations become more and more cult-like. How can they survive as they descend into more and more unhealthiness?

Lee

Posted by Lee Alison | November 21, 2009 1:52 PM

Deacon Scott,

Here's one such listing (there's some variation in interpretation of the exact ID/# of the Clobber Passages):

http://www.religioustolerance.org/homglance.htm

Genesis 19, Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 1:9-10, Jude 1:7

Posted by tgflux | November 23, 2009 1:11 AM

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